A Gaff Deck is a deck of specially designed playing cards for use - along with a standard deck of brand playing cards - in the performance of illusion or sleight-of-hand effects.

There are many different versions of these decks, made by different companies in the magic/illusion industry. The different versions have different sets of 'gaff' cards (see below for examples), which can be used to create different effects.

The cards in a gaff deck sometimes have a normal back, but the cards are changed (visually) in some way. Some examples include:

An ace of hearts with a broken heart pip in the middle

Two 3½ of clubs, with three-and-a-half pips in the center (can be used to split a 7 of clubs into two 3½ of clubs)

A 13 of diamonds - could be used to do a color change from a King of Diamonds into its numerical value in the deck, or as an addition of two other cards (e.g. a 7 of diamonds and a 6 of diamonds)

A card which is blank on one side, and on the back side it has a 6 of spades printed on top of the bicycle back design.

These cards are usually used with a normal deck (with the same back). The magician chooses a few cards and usually has them handy (e.g. in his pocket) and performs other magic tricks with the normal deck of cards. Then, he uses one or more of the gaff cards to perform magic tricks which seem to be beyond what most people would expect from card magic tricks - an effect which is enhanced as the audience knows that the deck is a normal deck of cards with which the previous tricks were performed.

Below are some video reviews on the leading industry sellers:

Top 7 Gaff Decks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui6CKuyi8uo

Black Noc Gaff Deck - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_eDAaWU6Co

Standard Bike Gaff Deck from Ellusionist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifx6-0Vsseg

Ultra Gaff from Ellusionoist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w8vrp09Uxc

Gaff Effect Deck from 1st Magic studio - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wQhKvk7oyo

The Gaff System by Ellusionist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xAM2qw020s

Weapons by Eric Ross - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVbo0ord-S0

Gamblers by Daniel Madison - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck8thWIFzCE

++ BONUS ++

Here is a run down of my top 10 favorite "Marked Decks" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jqR0A-ebak

How to use a "gaff Joker" card reveal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1xyphhaOIE

Excellent post/references!

The Bicycle Gaff Effect Deck from 1st Magic Studio is from 2014, and is now apparently sold out, out of print, and unavailable.

However 1st Magic Studio has more recently produced a second version of this deck, entitled "Super Gaff Deck". According to one source, "This deck includes many of the favorite cards from the first version, plus about a dozen new designs."

Does anyone have any information about how the Super Gaff deck compares with the original, i.e. what is the same and what is different?

Is it just me, or are gaff decks an example of vendors hiding behind the "it's a secret" baloney? Why shouldn't every gaff deck ad include a simple listing of what you're getting?

Maybe. Either way, I posted a bunch of photos of what is included in the Super Gaff Deck in another thread on The Magic Café (link), which might help people make a purchasing decision about that one.

Review: Super Gaff deck (1st Magic Studio)
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......c=664344

I love this deck, it's so entertaining to mess around with and experiment with some different effects.

There is also a few new gaff decks on kickstarter